“The Legendary Life of Queen Lau” is Removed from Platforms Over Excessive Japanese Elements
The Legendary Life of Queen Lau stars Li Hongyi and La Mu Yang Zi.
Youku’s historical rom com The Legendary Life of Queen Lau <我叫劉金鳳> got embroiled in a political controversy, as viewers rage over the excessive Japanese-like costumes and sushi eating scenes. Due to significant complaints, the show was removed from platforms after 15 days of its release. Radical netizens are still not appeased, as they even demanded officials to ban actress La Mu Yang Zi (辣目洋子) because of her Japanese-inspired stage name.
The Legendary Life of Queen Lau is adapted from the web novel Huang Hou Liu Hei Pang <皇后刘黑胖> by Ge Yang (戈鞅). The story tells an unlikely, yet perfect romance between the foul-mouthed village woman Liu Jinfeng (La Mu Yang Zi) and the scrawny and prideful king Duan Yunzhang (Li Hongyi). Shocking everyone in the village by marrying into the imperial family, Jinfeng waltzed into the court with no fear even against the powerful king himself. While the king could care less to even bat an eye at the curvy lady at first, he soon finds himself wrapped within her hands as he falls for her charming and witty personality. Despite the ruckus she causes, Yunzhang will not deny that she indeed makes palace life a whole lot more interesting!
While the drama is listed as a historical comedy, netizens have pointed out that the costumes and props are all designed with Japanese elements. For example, cherry blossom motifs are found in the crown and outfits. Additionally, sushi was first eaten during the Edo period in Japan, so it is strange, unfitting, and especially inaccurate for it to appear in an ancient Chinese drama.
In response to inaccurate historical representations, the National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) released a new specification that required Chinese historical dramas to to realistically restore every aspect of the period in time including the architecture, costumes, props, and makeup style. Meanwhile, xianxia and wuxia genres are exempted.
After heavy criticisms, The Legendary Life of Queen Lau has seemingly been removed from Youku in China, as it no longer appears in searches. However, some discovered that it could still be accessed when going through the platform’s drama list. Further enraged, netizens criticized Youku for falsifying their removal of the show and blasted, “If you’re going to delist, then you should do it properly! Stop playing tricks!” However, others who paid for the show beforehand also complained that they could not watch after paying and demanded a refund from Youku.
“The Legendary Life of Queen Lau” Trailer
Source: Up Media
This article is written by Minna for JayneStars.com.
Am i being ignorant/missing something offensive or is that such an overly dramatic move by removing the drama…
for heritage reason is very silly….for visual reason i can see.
It’s just a comedy, no need to be so serious
that is too much..
it surprise me that they don’t claim that sushi is from China, like what they do with Kimchi… hahaha… Crazy Mainland China
no more crazier than koreans who claim Chinese culture was appropriated from Korea
@GIAHT lol yes, my thoughts on all these copy costumes and foods are because they try to claim they are all from china, but it’s backfired lol, apparently the people are not stupid enough to accept that xD
This is the reason I don’t watch Chinese dramas anymore. China is crazy and so are their pinkies.
Don’t all these shows have to go through official review before securing a broadcast date? Suddenly now it is a problem? I feel bad for all the people who worked hard on this drama. It might not be a masterpiece, but I’m sure a lot of effort was put into it.
I am just glad I DL the drama before it got removed from platform. Honestly, China is just regressing to the period of Red Scarf cultural revolution. Soon we will see them wearing blue pants and jackets with red scarf.
And since the Gov stopped overseas travelling…they are trap like there were decades ago.
I wonder if it can be someone higher up didn’t like the Japanese theme and ordered his 50 cents army to complain so that the Broadcasting Regulation Dept can take action. I mean, sometimes the Broadcasting Regulation Department seem to listen and give to nonsense complain too easily, but, sometime they will stand firm no matter what the public said.
I also wonder, did anything major happened in China lately that need coverup and distraction?
Yes…Zero Covid policy is a coverup for ineffective China made Vaccine..and Gov wanting to gain control over China people again.
Biggest scandal now is Chinese banks are stealing money, their deposits went to 0 for many months. According to the banks policies what ever happen to the banks should not affect customer’s money. They even lied about having system upgrade that’s why deposits went down to 0. People are still protest and the police beating up people.
More like the higher up has something against the casts. If that higher up hates Japanese so much I don’t think ZLY will still be acting. It’s been a few years already after she wore a Japanese dress, she’s still doing great and was never reprimanded.
@Freekyu
Just read about the China bank case. That’s pretty bad.
Is ZYL Zhao Yiling? Didn’t know she has Japanese dress scandal.
OUCH, MY EYES MY EYES! Its blinded by the overinflated ego of the chinese
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t. When C-dramas use Korean cultural clothes and don’t censor or remove them, they get criticized for it. Now they’re removing Japanese cultural clothes and they still criticized for having high egos ♀️